Honos

Honos was closely associated with Virtus, the deified personification of Roman masculinity and valor; the pair were commonly worshipped together. In 234 BC, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus dedicated a temple to Honos along the Appian Way following his victory over the Ligures. It was situated just outside the Porta Capena, one of Rome's principal gates. Twelve years later, after Marcus Claudius Marcellus defeated and slew the Gallic king Viridomarus at the Battle of Clastidium, he vowed a temple to Honos and Virtus in order to win the spolia opima. In 212 BC, he renewed this vow after capturing Syracuse during the Second Punic War; while consul in 208 BC, he attempted to fulfill it by rededicating the existing temple in the name of both gods. The College of Pontiffs refused to allow this, so Marcellus ordered the restoration of the temple of Honos and arranged the construction of a second, adjoining shrine dedicated to Virtus. Marcellus was slain in an ambush near Venusia later that year, so the temple was eventually dedicated by his son, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellusin 205 BC. It was richly adorned with treasures that Marcellus had looted from Syracuse, although many of them disappeared over the next two centuries.